Saturday, March 20, 2010

I read about this recipe on Shop With Me Mama's blog the other day and decided I needed to try it. I have this issue with following directions though, so I'm going to give you all my modified version of her recipe. I hope you all enjoy it!

First, I put an 8 oz block of cream cheese in a bowl to soften. Then I diced half of an onion, and sauteed it in a bit of butter, until it started to brown. I like my onions cooked. At the same time, I put a package of spinach (no sauce or anything) in the microwave to cook.

I used a 6 oz package of the precooked chicken breast strips that you can find in the refrigerated section of the grocery store, instead of cooking them myself. I just diced them up smaller. I am very anti raw chicken. I hate touching it.

I threw the diced chicken on top of the cream cheese, along with the onions and spinach and mixed it all up.

I decided, hey, some shredded cheese and garlic would be good in this... and added them both. I didn't measure. More mixing followed.

After that, I spread the mixture on to crescent rolls- you know, the kind in the thwap tubes. Only the first one I think I put too much in. After that, I used a tablespoon instead of the mixing spoon to fill it and it worked much better.

See? The first one is very fat. I was afraid it would leak all over the place, but I didn't bother to fix it.

I had a bunch of leftover filling. I probably should have bought two or maybe even three of the tubes of crescent rolls. No problem though, since it was just the girls and I eating tonight- I just put the rest of the filling in the fridge for another day.

See how much was left? I cooked them at 350° for 15 minutes. They came out of the oven perfectly golden brown.

And let me tell you, they tasted amazing. Definitely a recipe to keep! Even the girls ate them, with no complaints- despite the spinach (they usually protest green foods) and onions.

So quick ingredient recap for your shopping list:

8oz block of cream cheese

6oz cooked chicken breast

Frozen package of spinach

½ of an onion, diced & sauteed

4oz shredded cheese

Sprinkle of garlic salt

2 or 3 tubes of refrigerated crescent rolls

Let me know if you try this, and if you experiment with any other ingredients- and how they come out!

What I make is kind of a spin off of a Pampered Chef recipe. If you want the original, click here.

Here's what I do- in a big bowl, I put cooked chicken, a blob of mayo, a bunch of shredded cheese, cooked veggies, and whatever spices I feel like that day. On the day I took that picture, I didn't even use broccoli, I used cauliflower, carrots, and snow peas. I also used the garlic flavored crescent rolls and southwest seasoning. Then I made a ring out of two tubes of crescent rolls and folded it all up and baked it at 350° for 25 minutes.

I never use the almonds or peppers. And I always put way more cheese than it says. Actually way more with all of the filling ingredients. Also, as you can tell, I didn't braid it because I grabbed my round stone instead of the rectangle one. Instead, I made a ring, like the Pampered Chef Taco Ring recipe- which is another favorite in this house. I modify that too, of course.

Have you ever had Black Bottom Cupcakes? I haven't had these in years- I don't think I've ever made them for Aaron. They are amazing. I am not sure what made me think about them, but once I started, I couldn't get them out of my head. I dug through my box of recipes and finally found it written on the back of a receipt dated 1996. I sent Aaron to the store for the one ingredient we needed- cream cheese- and got to work.

It's a really simple recipe. You just throw all the cake ingredients in the mixer, and then spoon into the muffin tin. Then you don't even need to clean the mixer before you put the filling stuff in. Aaron showed up with my block of cream cheese right as I was about ready for it- perfect timing. I always add way more chocolate chips than the recipe says too. I mean, how can you have too much chocolate?

Right now I'm impatiently waiting the 20 minutes they take to bake. My house is starting to smell chocolaty. It's delightful. There's nothing better than the smell of something delicious baking in your house, don't you agree?

After you get the filling made, you just spoon big blobs of it on top of the cake batter. I think I may have overfilled these, I guess we'll see when they come out of the oven. The only downfall to this recipe is it doesn't make nearly enough cupcakes. I should probably double it when I make it.

You never know...

Sometimes I cook or bake. Sometimes I sew. I love to dye things. I've been known to string a few beads and scrap a few pages. I've melted wax into tarts, and created various bath and body products. You just never know where my creativity is going to take me... or how much of a mess I will leave behind.

If you're looking for my main blog, it's located at http://tatertwins.com- please come say hi and meet the family!